Lanuvio is located 33 kilometers from Rome, on the Albani Hills, is part of the
Castelli Romani.
The foundation would have happened thanks to or Diomede, a companion of
Aeneas, or for the eponymous hero Lanuvio.
A city well known in antiquity, it owes its fortune to the Sanctuary of
Giunone Sospita. This building was on more terracing on the hill of
San Lorenzo and sees different stages of construction.
The goddess is portrayed as an army, with the goat skin on her shoulders
is tied between the breasts, the shoes are pointed, at his feet there is a
snake. Juno accompanies and protects women especially during
the fertile age and also has an agrarian, animal and human character. Not by chance his festivity recurred during the calends, the day of the new birth of the
moon; in the month of February. Each year the snake was offered focaccia from virgin girls.They were brought into a forest and blindfolded. It was a propitiatory rite. If the reptile had not eaten then it meant that the young woman it was not pure. For this reason he had to be punished. If the snake devoured the focaccia then you would have had a good harvest.
What remains today of this impressive sanctuary is a beautiful one
porch located on the second terracing.The story of Lanuvio is linked to personalities that emerged for their qualities since the ancient era. In the republican age the playwright Luscio Lanuvino, actor Q. Roscio and above all Lucio Licinio Murena who was console in 62 B.C. and he took care of restoring the sanctuary of Juno.Here also two famous emperors were born: Antonino Pio and Commodo they were particularly generous with their hometown.
When Christianity became an official religion, pagan rites came
then suppressed. What had been a thriving center full of life he experienced a crisis. The rebirth took place in the eleventh century thanks to the monks
Benedettini and his name changed to Civita Novina. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the whole area was owned by the Colonna family until not
they decided to sell the whole country, together with Ardea, to Giuliano Sforza
Cesarini. In the eighteenth century it risked being razed to the ground by troops French who wanted to avenge the death of some of their killed comrades here. Fortunately this did not happen thanks to Teresa’s intervention
Dionigi and Marianna Candidi Dionigi. The latter very cultivated woman,
difficult to describe for its thousand passions. Artist, scholar of antiquity,
writer who lived in a villa located near the center of Lanuvio.The town maintained the name of “Civita Lavinia” until October 15, 1915,
when the ancient name of Lanuvio was returned. During the Second War
World there was a lot of damage due to the aerial bombardments. Of the
medieval period can still be admired today: the tower and its
characteristic village.In 2012 an operation called “Juno” was conducted in
Pantanacci locality from the Group Protection Archaeological Heritage, department of the Guardia di Finanza. After two months of investigations with sophisticated systems,they managed to stop a clandestine excavation and allowed the discovery of a large amount of votive material.
The findings found are of the ex-voto, that is the representations of one
part of the body (which can be both internal and external), offered to
divinity to ask for the healing or to thank an already happened.
They also served to ask for both male and female fertility protection
female. Another great discovery was the discovery of six elements in
peperino engraved with scales. They had to be part of a big one
statue three meters high that represented the famous snake described by
ancient sources. The cave has never been located with certainty and in this regard there are different interpretations. With these recent discoveries he makes another hypothesis: the one that sees Pantanacci as the cave of the
snake.
The town museum has a very special feature, that of
be a widespread museum. There are several places that host the
finds and its history. The main office is located on the first floor of the
Town Hall. There are several sections: the pre-Roman one,
Roman, epigraphic, of the instruments linked to daily and medieval life.
A series of photographs showing the changes are also collected
of the country.
The second pole is dedicated to Pantanacci and votives are shown with the unpublished
finding of oral cables.
The third was recently inaugurated: the castle museum of Civita
Lavinia and the Stendhal prison. All with teaching panels that explain
the history of the tower, the weapons that were used, the sentences of detention
and medieval finds from the area. This is a place
of citizenship, made available to the community, with a function
educational.
At Lanuvio one can perceive pride, the pride of citizenship that
aims to make known its history, its origins.
